Families, friends grieve those killed in Loop fire

October 21, 2003|By Brett McNeil, Tribune staff reporter.

A Polish immigrant who worked as a cleaning lady at the Cook County Administration Building for 25 years, Teresa Zajac was remembered Monday as a devoted wife and mother whose life ended as she tried desperately to help others escape a smoky stairwell inside the Loop high-rise last week.

While hundreds of Zajac's friends and family were mourning inside Chicago's St. Constance Church, 5843 W. Strong St., relatives of Felice Lichaw, 51, a counselor for Central States Institute of Addiction who worked part time in the building, were saying their farewells in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Both women were killed in the blaze Friday in the Cook County-owned property. Six people died of smoke inhalation inside the high-rise at 69 W. Washington St. The other victims will have services later in the week.

During a noontime mass, eulogists expressed admiration for Zajac's fighting spirit and frustration over her death.

"She was trying to open [a stairwell] door, but her keys didn't work," said Rev. Thaddeus Dzieszko, after the service conducted almost entirely in Zajac's native Polish. "The questions that we have will probably never be answered. She was only 51 years old. She had a beautiful family, beautiful plans--to die in such an unfortunate tragedy."

Zajac was at work on the 20th floor when a fire broke out eight floors below shortly before 5 p.m. Like many others, she fled into a stairwell that became choked with smoke and then was overcome when security door locks prevented her from getting out of the stairwell. "We come here...with our anger and our questions," said Rev. Thomas Rzepiela, a priest at Holy Name Cathedral who addressed Zajac's family in English. "We come here to pray, looking for answers as to why?"

Through tears, Zajac's daughter Joanna, 17, said, "We weren't able to do or say a lot that we wanted to. Now there will be an emptiness in our lives."

Last month, the Zajac family finished building a small cottage in Wisconsin and had planned to host friends and family there over Thanksgiving.

As Joanna and her sister, Anna, read from a poem and held each other for support, mourners cried into handkerchiefs and shirtsleeves.

"What happened to you just isn't right. I still can't believe it," Anna Zajac said. "Why did this happen? Did they not know we had plans?"

A memorial service for another victim, Sara Chapman, 38, an attorney with the Cook County public guardian's office, will begin at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Winnetka Bible Church, 555 Birch St., Winnetka.

A funeral mass for John Slater III, 39, another public guardian attorney, will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday in St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, 1300 N. Noble St.